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Bogota did it. Montreal did it. Copenhagen did it. Can Toronto?

100 in 1 Day, in which ideas range from practical to pie-in-the-sky, is coming to Toronto. What should we expect?

John Brodhead of Evergreen CityWorks is organizing Toronto's first day of urban action. Dubbed 100 in 1, the event will take place on June 7, when Brodhead is aiming to have 100 urban "interventions" on display across the city. (David Cooper / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

One day last fall, Montreal resident Claudia Espinosa Ramos set out to change her city with a small table, a few folding chairs and a simple request.

Espinosa Ramos, a striking 29-year-old artist known as “Cerrucha,” was troubled by the superficial nature of relationships eked out amid perpetual hurry. If she gave people an opportunity, she wondered, would they engage in meaningful conversation?

In the bustling Jean Talon market, across the aisle from mounds of oranges and lemons, Espinosa Ramos set up her furniture, along with a sign that read, “Take time” — which, to her surprise, many passersby proceeded to do.

A therapist confided that she rarely had a chance to discuss her own problems. A man who used to live on the streets told of how he’d turned his life around. One woman relayed a bit of good news: Her cancer was in remission.

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“People responded really well,” said Espinosa Ramos. “They sat down. They talked. They were sharing all these stories.

“I got to the conclusion that we all want the same thing. People do want to be part of something.”

It is a thought that likely crossed the minds of many in Montreal that day. Espinosa Ramos’s “intervention” was just one of 100 that took place during a pioneering exercise in city-building that is slated to touch down in Toronto in June.

The event is called “100 in 1 Day.” It is a global initiative with a lofty ambition: To shake the urban masses out of complacency, and compel residents to do 100 little things, dubbed “interventions,” to improve their city in one day.

Since it was started by a group of Danish and Colombian students in Bogota in 2012, the event has been replicated in a more than a dozen cities around the world. Interventionists in Copenhagen, Cape Town and Montreal have beautified abandoned phone booths, high-fived strangers in the subway and offered free bike tours to seniors. Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax are expected to join the list of cities participating this year.

Like Espinosa Ramos’s makeshift living room, many of the interventions have been largely symbolic, and no one is keeping track of how often they stick. But according to Simon Bergkjaer, who was part of the team that conceived of 100 in 1 Day, an entirely results-oriented approach misses the point.

“The tangible impact is very important, but it’s also what kind of mindset changes and society changes these kinds of interventions can lead to and can carry with them,” Bergkjaer said. “It’s a realization that you can take ownership and do something different where you live.”

Pollyannaish though it may seem, in an era of polarizing politicians and high cynicism, when commuters are more likely to consider their smartphones than each other, this grassroots, feel-good movement seems to be striking a chord.

“The more we talk to (people) about it, the more it feels like we’ve tapped into something timely,” said John Brodhead, executive director of Evergreen CityWorks, which along with United Way Toronto is bringing 100 in 1 to town.

“It kind of puts out that narrative that this is a city that is innovative, that takes control of its own future, that is going to tackle some of the big challenges that the city faces,” he said. “People are going to tackle them themselves.”

Let’s face it: Toronto could use an intervention. The Gardiner Expressway is crumbling. Our subways are bursting at the seams. The middle class is eroding, as housing costs ascend beyond the grasp of the growing ranks of the working poor.

And all of these problems were entrenched long before the circus at city hall.

“Beyond even the last year, the challenges we’re trying to tackle are too big to do it alone. They’re too big for the political system to do it on its own,” Brodhead said. “We have to have everyone testing and engaging on this.”

There is no blueprint for 100 in 1, which is still very much a work in progress. But Evergreen and United Way plan to use the same tools that have proven effective in other cities. In addition to getting the word out online and on social media, Brodhead said weekly brainstorming sessions, held every Tuesday from March to June in venues across the city, will be key.

“It’s one of our core objectives that this gets beyond the people who are usually engaged,” Brodhead said. “ We’re going to go after every corner.”

A few interventions will get an extra boost: After the June 7 event, three ideas will be selected to receive $10,000 in seed money from the Toronto Community Foundation, as well as non-financial support from Evergreen CityWorks to scale initiatives with long-term feasibility.

“I think there’s a big impact potential,” Brodhead said.

From the outset, 100 in 1 Day has been a mix of what Bergkjaer describes as a “solutions-based approach to problem solving,” and pie-in-the-sky dreaming.

As part of their degree at Denmark’s Kaospilot school (a very Scandinavian institution that offers “innovation training”), Bergkjaer and his classmates were working with design students in Bogota to implement six interventions to transform the city.

After a few beers one day, someone suggested they grow the number of interventions to 100 “as a joke,” said David Serna, who was part of the Colombian team.

However unrealistic, Serna said the suggestion “changed everything,” because it allowed the team to reach out to the community and “create a platform where all citizens can join in.”

When the city held its inaugural 100 in 1 Day event on May 26, 2012, more than 3,000 residents participated in 250 interventions, Serna said.

Among other, somewhat less tangible impacts, Serna credits the event with creating a new collective called Combo 2600, which has become “one of the main protectors of pedestrians” in the city, painting crosswalks around schools and working with government to increase awareness.

In Bogota, many of the fixes have centred on improving infrastructure and public spaces. In more developed cities, the ideas have tended to be more closely tied to strengthening community bonds — and just being nicer to each other.

In Copenhagen, for instance, one group of interventionists built the frame of a city bus, and walked it along one of the busiest routes, to give passengers an opportunity to talk, and a break free from the doldrums of their commutes.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, there was a silent disco atop Mount Royal, where interventionists set their iPods to the same soundtrack, and grooved to a beat that was inaudible to passersby.

According to Cedric Jamet, who helped organize the event in Montreal, the effect of 100 in 1 is “first and foremost, emotional.”

“The aim for it is to foster active citizenship again,” Jamet said. “It’s to make people realize that they can have an impact on their city, and that they shouldn’t just leave everything up to governments and institutions.”

So what’s in store for Toronto on June 7?

If he has learned anything about 100 in 1 from other cities, Brodhead said it is to “let it grow.”

The kernel of a city-changing intervention, he said, “can span the spectrum of fully baked ideas, ready to be tested, all the way to, ‘I’ve always been curious about this.’”

“Come to the workshop explore that thought. See if you can turn it into something that can be tested on the day,” he said. “That thought could be really important to the future of the city.”

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